Sunday, December 12, 2010

WINTER IS COMING...

... And we're all terribly excited about it and anxiously ticking days off the calendar! I am of course, referring to the upcoming HBO mini-series, A Game of Thrones based on the Song of Ice and Fire books. Fans of the series will finally have something to look forward to, having spent years and years writing angry letters to the author, George R.R. Martin and angrier blog posts to get him to finish the series. Check out the HBO teaser clips: it is going to be E P I C.

For the uninitiated, A Song of Ice and Fire is a fantasy series written by George R.R. Martin, with 4 books out of far and is heavily influenced by medieval tales of errantry and Arthurian legends. Set in the land of Westeros, the series chronicles a deadly power struggle for the Iron Throne between all the powerful families in the land. Skulduggery, deceit, incest, betrayal, dark magic, omens and dragons are not uncommon, as we follow three separate plot lines as narrated by several POV characters. Now tell me that isn't going to make a bloody awesome mini-series.

As of now, HBO has committed to ten episodes. But here's the problem: GRRM wrote 4 books, ending the last one with MAJOR cliffhangers and hasn't written any sequels .... since 2005. He regularly promises to wrap up the series on his blog, but being part-magpie, he gets distracted easily and has now decided that choosing the actors who are to play minor, two-line roles in the mini-series is more important than finishing the goddamn book. One can only hope that HBO has threatened to erase him if he doesn't finish the series. WHY GEORGE, WHY? WHY DO YOU HATE YOUR FANS AND READERS OF YOUR (SOMEWHAT-MEDIOCRE-IN-RETROSPECT) BOOKS SO MUCH? ARGH.

Anyway.

Now, long before the series got greenlighted for production, the Amazing Archishman and I came up with our own dream cast. It' s a dream cast because some of the actors are now too old for the roles and others have shuffled off this mortal coil. Here they are along with the cast actually chosen for the mini-series. Think some of the actors are totally wrong for the role? You have someone better in mind? Rant and rave about it in the comments section.